HTC

The speculation is over, and the Facebook Phone is finally a real thing. Rather, it's a few things, and they were all just announced at Facebook's live event. The focus of the event was a new version of Facebook's Android software called "Facebook Home" which will be available to download April 12th. Facebook, HTC, and AT&T also announced the HTC First, which will be the first phone built around Facebook Home. Let's take a look at what Home is all about.

Could this afternoon really bring a conclusion to the years of whispers, rumors, and speculation about a Facebook phone? It certainly looks that way. All signs point to an HTC phone that devotes much of its homescreen to keeping up with the Joneses, as well as all of your other Facebook friends. It also appears that hardware like the phone's camera could be directly linked to a user's Facebook page. If you're tired of pressing multiple buttons to upload a photo to Facebook or let your friends know where you're eating dinner, this could very well be the phone for you. Keep reading to learn more about what we think we know about the phone so far and watch the live stream with us starting at 12:50 PM EST.

In December of last year, Google Maps was facing scrutiny in Germany for potentially violating European Union privacy laws. Things haven't gotten easier for Google in that country, because now Google Maps faces a complete ban in Germany due to a patent dispute with Microsoft. If Microsoft wins the ruling, Google will have to take some pretty extreme measures to keep Google Maps out of Germany. Hope you didn't want to find your away Germany, everybody. It's about to get a little more difficult for you, or more expensive for Google.

After two years of saber-rattling and a ever-increasing stakes, Apple and HTC have finally settled their patent disputes.
Wait a second. There's another melodramatic tech patent lawsuit and we didn't know about it?

According to AllThingsD, Facebook is allegedly at work with HTC to create their own mobile device based off the Android OS. If their source is to be believed, the device is code-named "Buffy," presumably to slay the vampires of Apple and Google. Though rumors of a Facebook have been circulating for over a year, this news is the first firm evidence of such a device.
Despite Facebook's success, it's fair to ask why they would want to tempt fate and launch their own device.

In recent updates to some of its android devices, HTC enabled some pretty exhaustive data-logging. The purpose was likely to collect information for statistics or helping users troubleshoot. Now, if you're going to collect this sort of data, you're going to want to keep it locked up considering that users generally don't respond well to their data being leaked. Unfortunately, that's not the case with these new updates. In fact, the data -- all of it -- is pretty trivial for any app to collect.

Trevor Eckhart was the first to find the warning signs, after which he teamed up with Justin Case and Artem Russakovskii of Android Police to try and get to the bottom of the situation. It seems that the situation can be adequately summed up this way: Any app can get information like encoded texts, limited location history, and phone numbers from the call log if it is just given permission to access the Internet.

According to a new survey by UBS Investment Research which polled 515 international "high-end customers," Apple's iPhone has the highest retention rate among smartphone users, with an enormous 89 percent of users claiming they're going to stick with the brand when the next generation releases. The second highest retention rate among smartphone users is HTC, with 39 percent, a staggering gap between first and second. Interestingly, Research in Motion, once king of smartphones with their BlackBerry line, took the biggest hit, with their retention rate dropping from 62 percent to 33 percent in the last 18 months. Android vendors Samsung and Motorola brought up the top 5 rear, with a respective 28 and 25 percent retention rate.

The Android software did better than the Android hardware, with 55 percent of users saying they'll keep with the operating system, although 31 percent of Android users claimed they are going to defect to Apple for their next phone. Interestingly, the survey found that 50 percent of people who plan to switch brands for their next phone plan to switch to Apple, whereas only 10 percent of phone switchers are going away from Apple. What're your thoughts? Can't wait for the next iteration(s) of the iPhone(s), or do you just really want to stick with the openness of Android?

This past weekend, Google announced on the Nexus One Android phone blog that the company's flagship device has been discontinued, only half a year later. Once the last shipment has been sold, U.S. consumers will no longer be able to purchase the once-hyped smartphone from Google. The doomsday announcement for the Nexus One had been expected ever since disappointing sales in its first month, and the subsequent closure of the web store in May.
Created in partnership with Taiwan-based manufacturer HTC to display advanced possibilities of the Android operating software, Google's Nexus One smartphone was a unique handset in that it could be sold unlocked (not restricted to a single network provider). Perhaps the feature didn't gel with the average consumer, or the steep price of a $529 unlocked handset was offputting.
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Brand power is potent. And Apple has such powerful name recognition that some people just want the next iPhone or Mac product no matter what else is on the market. Even if another phone could, say, create an island then transform into a jet and fly you there, some people would still rather get an iPhone 4. The below video, which is full of robotically-voiced NSFW language, tells the story of these blinded fans. Don't let its cute exterior fool you, this video gets pretty verbally brutal.
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Sprint, the country’s third largest wireless provider, announced the HTC Evo today, showcasing the world’s first 4G phone at the communication industry’s annual CTIA event in Las Vegas. This new phone is by all accounts a beautiful beast, decked out with a 4.3 inch screen, two cameras, and Android 2.1; but more importantly, it is the first phone to run on a 4G network.

However, this souped-up phone raises one extremely important question: what exactly does 4G mean?